MAYBE WE ALL HAVE MOMENTS WHEN WE FEEL LIKE TALKING ABOUT THINGS WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. AT ANY RATE, I SUPPOSE I SHOULD NEVER FEEL THAT I “HAVE TO”, CONSIDERING WHAT I ACTUALLY DO FOR A LIVING…

This is my latest self-employed professional translator blog, which exists for the sake of promoting myself. First of all, let me say that, speaking as a professional freelance translator who’s been in business for seven years who wants (i.e. feels a need) to develop my knowledge, both in certain areas of subject matter that I do translation work in and, put crudely, of “how certain things work”, I feel that I have said what’s in the title seven years too late.

Yes, I got to thinking that, for most people, there are times when they feel compelled to talk about things that they know nothing about, whether or not they think as much (for whatever reason, I find myself thinking of THAT Big Brother conversation in which Jade Goody dropped the “East Angular” bombshell. But then there’s the subject of psychiatry). I am a translator by trade and this means that, when I do my job, I am supposed to make actual sense of the material that I am reading (in my case, material that is written in French or German) by whatever means necessary, committed to a fully proper and rational appreciation of what is supposed to be reflected by it, and quite possibly – consider this if it’s something which is intended to have a function of persuasion or entertainment – encouraged by it. All without letting any kind of personal bias prevail, of course. And you know what this is followed by, don’t you? That’s right: finding a way to write it right (“…right”). It’s not that I’m not more than capable of getting by in French and German on a practical level, but native speakers are likely to be a whole lot more immersed in their language and be creative with it on a whim (whether it’s for convenience purposes or not) while simply not caring about what anyone else would think – but it’s certainly enough to leave the latter guessing. Maybe these other people will agree that they feel nothing short of forced to guess… and, like I said, I translate for a living. This is a very comic example, but a good example all the same: how many people who are not native speakers of English would say something like “it’s raining cats and dogs” when talking in English? Or use Cockney Rhyming Slang? Not likely! Now, I don’t want to sound judgemental, but how many times have you, when trying to explain what something is to someone, just found yourself starting with trying to clarify what it isn’t? Translation is about accurate reflection of information, after all.

I recently watched a replay of one of Chris Cardell’s online seminars. Of course, I’m hardly especially sharp about modern day business marketing, especially online fare – like, I hardly have an acute sense of the (supposedly) deep and advanced things he likes to rattle on about, and I have to confess I didn’t always give it my undivided attention. But I had read so much stuff he has sent clients in emails only the night before, so I was confident that I would have at least a vague idea of what he was “getting at”, as much as I was sure that my business is really not like his. For example, when he talked about something that can be described only as “the diving board analogy”, I really felt like shouting out, “pillars analogy!” Let me explain: I’ve been an ongoing client of this man for quite a bit now, and I’ve known him say that one is the worst number that can exist in business. What he means by this is, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, by which he means, in the context, that if you expect to get all your customers from only one source of marketing, and then that source of marketing just disappeared or crumbled… well, put simply, things will get very problematic and disadvantageous. That’s just an example. And when discussing this he talks about this analogy of something being held up; it’s a lot more stable and less likely to fall down if it’s held up by multiple sources of marketing i.e. multiple pillars rather than only one. And, if you do have only one thing gunning for you somewhere, he makes out this single pillar underneath the thing being held up, as being on the periphery of the underside of it (not at the central bit of it)! That’s where the diving board idea comes from. Bet you never would have guessed that (or, indeed, known what I was talking about) if I hadn’t explained it there!

And I did keep notes based on what he said. And… I knew that they weren’t strictly notes that could just have only made sense to me personally (if they made sense at all) when I reviewed them at a later time. You see, there have been times when I have agreed to make notes about something in a lesson I’m being taught while not being particularly eager about it, so the notes I made were casual; and in hindsight it really is like, if someone wanted to look at these notes as part of examining me for my own personal history (without the option of being able to discuss anything with me of all people), chances are that they would be left guessing at every turn.

Albert Einstein said that “education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school”. And he also defined it as “training the mind to think” …right. He must have meant learning how to become acquainted with the truth even amidst all that is boundlessly abstract. To some, this may be mainly understanding the cynicism of politicians or what certain big business companies would prefer to keep concealed. To others, it may be recognising the element of duplicity that makes a scam a scam. To still others, it might be being able to know the root cause of a given instance of psychotic behaviour straight away, or exactly what ruins relationships. For me, it’s simply doing whatever’s necessary to redefine information for what it is, in a way that is correct in real terms and reliable, and preferably easy to follow. It may be obvious to some that I feel an undying need to be able trust myself when I do something like this. Maybe there really is a word for the idea where someone “understands something even though it doesn’t make sense” – at least, you understand what is instinctively “there” (“innit”)? This applies in the art of translation, I’m sure of it. It’s just that I personally believe that you know that you love someone when they’re being insane and you can tell whether or not it’s self-induced.

I’m not perfect, I suppose. But there are certain scenarios where that should never be considered a legitimate (or, rather, flippant and dismissive) excuse for your decisions or actions (hello, Mr. Glitter), and in my book that certainly applies when you want to climb up the ladder in the industry you work in. I accept that just retaining your current position – not just in business, but in anything – can be a challenge sometimes. But, in the spirit of promoting myself as mentioned at the beginning, I can see very well that if I’m ever going to get close to where I’d like to be, then doing what seems right alone will just not cut it. As far as becoming acquainted with the truth (as mentioned earlier) is concerned: well, if I don’t manage that then it’s only a matter of time before I settle on something in its place; but even that could prove more enlightening than I bargained for.

So…

…Well, where DO I go from here? And maybe you’re thinking: how likely am I to know what I’m talking about when discussing it?

How about this? Shall we go exploring the realm of translation together? If you want to join me, and get a taste of what I do first-hand, then what follows is a number of these work-related anecdotes such as I have written in previous comments. I suppose you could say that, at the end of the day, speaking as a professional translator of all things, I indeed don’t like it when “words fail me” (no pun intended), as they say – certainly when all I can do is depend on my capacity to form any sort of definition of the content of the original material and what it’s supposed to suggest / indicate – for myself, let alone anyone else. Yes, this is how I roll; and this is how our little exploration rolls…

Original French: “Durant quatre jours, ce salon concilie ainsi arts et gastronomie, excellence du terroir et création, mais surtout dégustation et vente directe!”
English tramslation: “In short, over a period of four days, this show combines arts and gastronomy, local and creative excellence, but also, in particular, tasting and direct sales!
I.e. “ainsi” was translated as “in short” rather than as “in this way” or something similar.

Original French: “C’est un artiste d’atelier : concentré, lent et dense”
English translation: “This is a studio artist: concentrated, slow and with substance”
I.e. translating “dense” as “dense” in English would have been lazy and probably would have sounded odd – who would want to be thought of as dense anyway!?

Original French: “Le musicien parisien démarre sa carrière dans le jazz manouche à 18 ans. Django Reinhardt est son héros et la guitare son instrument de predilection.”
English translation: “This Parisian musician began his career in gypsy jazz at 18. Django Reinhardt is his hero, and his guitar is his instrument of choice.”
In this scenario: just for a bit, I forgot I wasn’t writing about Django Reinhardt, and would have been wrong to write that “this man is his own hero”. No we’re talking about Thomas Dutronc here – look him up.

French original: “dans le but de mettre en lumière la vie et la personnalité d’un des artistes les plus influents du tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles”
English translation: “with the aim of highlighting the life and the personality of one of the most influential artists at the turn of the 19th century”.
My English translation there just reads far better than something like “at the turning between the 19th century and the 20th century”.

French original: “Prado, une évidence commerciale, architecturale et urbaine.”
English translation: “Prado, a business, architectural, and urban work of art.”
Yes, I see that Prado is supposed to be understood as evidence in a business, architectural, and urban sort of way. But I knew very well that using the word “evidence” in my English translation would have made it too much of a literal translation, hence my use of the expression “work of art”.

German original: “Derzeit fokussieren wir unsere Expansion und ergreifen dadurch Chancen”
English translation: “We are currently focussing our expansion and, with it, seizing opportunities”.
It’s a bit embarrassing, but I almost translated “Chancen ergreifen” as “taking chances” rather than “seizing opportunities”!